Conversation on Race Program Concludes with Facilitator Liza Talusan

The final all school program of Hopkins’ year long Conversations on Race was held on Tuesday, April 12 with an assembly presentation by Liza Talusan, followed by grade-level workshops throughout the day. 

 

Talusan, known as a highly skilled facilitator for creating brave spaces for conversation, is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Park School in Brookline, MA.  More famously, though, Talusan is known on campuses for her on-screen appearance in the film, I Am Not Racist, Am I? where she encouraged Martha, who tearfully stormed out on her group, to “go back in there” where things suddenly “got real.” 

 

Talusan praised Hopkins students for doing “way more than any other school I know “on the topic of race.  Crafting her presentation specifically to Hopkins, she emphasized individual perspective-- the honoring and understanding that individual perspective and experience shapes how we view and interact with the world. 

  

During a question and answer session, students got right to the point. 

 

“What do you think of the definition of racism presented in the film?”  Talusan acknowledged there are several ways to define racism and that the Peoples Institute’s definition did not match her own experience.   And in response to the question, “Why is all of this important?” Talusan was crystal clear.  Learning to have difficult conversations, learning to see the world through another person’s perspective—these are important foundational building blocks. “It’s like learning calculus or learning how to use a comma.  When you are learning these skills, you don’t see their importance—it is only later you come to see how foundational that knowledge is.”

 

During grade-level workshop sessions, students formed into small groups for non-facilitated, adult-free, conversation.  They shared their  responses to a variety of sentence prompts including,  “In conversations about privilege, I often feel ________” ,  “One thing our school has a hard time talking about is _________” , and “I do/do not belong at this school because ______________.”   

 

At the last workshop of the day with seniors, Talusan shared her experience working with college students.  “So often I see kids, in their first year of college, get derailed by an insensitive racial or homophobic comment or encounter.  Many students are unprepared for entering a diverse community."  She praised the Class of 2016 for their work this year and encouraged them to be leaders in these conversations as they head off to college.